The redemptive-historical administration of the return from Babylonian Captivity
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Scripture reading: Isaiah 10:20-21
Scripture reading: Isaiah 10:20-21
Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
Introduction
This Bible study is taken from book 5 of the History of Redemption series, entitled ‘The Promise of the Eternal Covenant: God’s Profound Providence as Revealed in the Genealogy of Jesus Christ (the Postexilic Period)’ from pages 316-327.
The Bible gives us several pictures of salvation to help us understand our situation. And of the many pictures and metaphors, we’re going to look at it from the picture of captivity and release. The Israelites were held captive twice in their history. First in Egypt as slaves, and then in Babylon as captives. And both times, God brought them out of captivity and brought them into freedom.
And this tells us something about salvation. There is a pattern to the salvation process. We are all held captive by the bondage of sin and death. We are all held captive by the things of this world.
And so today we are looking at the return from Babylonian captivity, and learn what we must do to make sure that we too can return from spiritual captivity.
The return signifies the end of God’s wrath toward our sin
The return signifies the end of God’s wrath toward our sin
So first, why did God send the Israelites into captivity in Babylon? The Israelites committed four sins that brought God’s wrath upon them. The first two are listed in Chronicles, and the last two in Psalm 107.
The sin of worshiping idols (Jer. 2:13)
The sin of failing to observe the sabbaths and sabbatical years (2 Chr. 36:21)
The sin of rebelling against God’s Word & the sin of despising God’s divine counsel (Ps. 107:10-11).
Jeremiah 2:13 (ESV)
for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.
Psalm 107:10–11 (NASB95)
There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, Prisoners in misery and chains, Because they had rebelled against the words of God And spurned the counsel of the Most High.
But God’s wrath came to an end, and so in order to release the Israelites, He raised up the allied forces of Media and Persia to destroy Babylon.
“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria.
‘And I will bring Israel back to his pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead.
And after Babylon had been destroyed, the Israelites found themselves under the rule of King Cyrus of Persia.
When you get a new boss at work, it can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing. When there was a new Pharaoh in Egypt, he enslaved all the Israelites for 400 years. Now there’s a new king. And this new king could make a lot of profit from these Israelite captives. How many Israelite captives were there? 42,360.
The whole assembly together was 42,360,
Imagine if Cyrus had set up an Israelite construction company, Jacob and Sons Construction, with more then 40,000 unpaid workers. What kind of buildings he could have created!
But God stirs the heart of King Cyrus to release all the Israelites from their captivity.
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia—in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah—the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!’ ”
And so in 537 BC, more than 40,000 Israelites return from captivity. Why? Because God’s wrath was satisfied, and God bestowed His grace upon the land and covered the sins of His people.
Psalm 85:1–3 (NASB95)
O Lord, You showed favor to Your land; You restored the captivity of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of Your people; You covered all their sin. Selah. You withdrew all Your fury; You turned away from Your burning anger.
The return gives us certainty regarding the future eschatological salvation
The return gives us certainty regarding the future eschatological salvation
Why? Because the Bible tells us in the book of Revelation that we are held captive in the spiritual city of Babylon. And God calls us out.
And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.
“For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”
I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;
The Israelites in captivity cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and God heard them, and God delivered them. So we too, who are living in Babylon, must cry out to God. And what caused the Israelites to cry out? They were sick and tired of dwelling in darkness and in the shadow of death.
There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Prisoners in misery and chains,
And in response, God delivered them from their captivity.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death
And broke their bands apart.
So what about us? The people of this world don’t cry out to God. Why? Because they like it here. They’re happy to live in sin. We cry out to God because we’re sick and tired of living in sin. A preacher put it like this.
What you’re attracted to when you’re sick will repulse you when you’re healthy
So does sin repulse you? That means that God has brought restoration to your soul. By His grace of restoration that we can cry out to God.
Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
The return shows that there will be a remnant
The return shows that there will be a remnant
So now we come to the idea of a remnant. What’s a remnant? A remnant is something that remains when the rest are gone. Something that endures until the time of enduring is over. The prophet Amos describes the remnant as the kernels that remain when the rest of the wheat has been sifted.
Amos 9:9 (NASB95)
“For behold, I am commanding, And I will shake the house of Israel among all nations As grain is shaken in a sieve, But not a kernel will fall to the ground.
Isaiah describes the remnant as a stump of a tree.
Isaiah 6:13 (NASB95)
“Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, And it will again be subject to burning, Like a terebinth or an oak Whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump.”
And this picture of a remnant teaches us four things about ourselves.
There is a remnant for every generation in the history of redemption
There is a remnant for every generation in the history of redemption
We can see that Satan has been working hard to cut off the lineage of the Woman’s seed. There was Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel and departed from the Lord’s presence. And so God gave another child to Adam, called Seth. And we can see that Adam taught the Word of God to Seth and to Seth’s children and grandchildren, so that even Lamech knew about the curse of the ground. So Adam was a remnant.
Noah was also a remnant. The rest of the world was swept away in God’s judgement, but Noah remained afloat.
Abraham was a remnant. God called him out of the land of idolatry in Ur of the Chaldeans, and brought him to the land of Canaan.
The Israelites who returned from Babylonian captivity were also remnants who brought forward God’s history of redemption. How? By rebuilding the temple, by renewing the covenant with God, by rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, and by reestablishing themselves upon God’s Word.
Who are the remnants? The ones who carry on God’s history of redemption. The ones who fight in the battle against Satan, who keep the commandments of God, and who hold on to the testimony of Jesus.
So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
I pray that we, as the remnants, will continue to fight, keep, and hold on. Fight Satan, keep God’s commands, and hold on to the testimony of Jesus.
There will be a remnant who will return to Jesus Christ in the last days
There will be a remnant who will return to Jesus Christ in the last days
Jesus said that when He returns, He will gather His chosen ones, the elect.
“And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
The remnants are the ones who know Jesus, and who depend only upon Him.
Isaiah 10:20–21 (NASB95)
Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
The expression here, ‘mighty God,’ is el-gibbor. It’s the same phrase used in Is. 9:6, which points to Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 9:6 (NASB95)
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
So the remnants are the ones who, by the grace of God, know Jesus and who depend on Him only. When Jesus returns, He will gather the remnant to Himself.
The remnant will enjoy the blessing of having their sins pardoned
The remnant will enjoy the blessing of having their sins pardoned
Micah 7:18 (NASB95)
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love.
The word ‘passes over’ is abar, and it means to take away, to go away, or to cross over. It’s where we get Eber or Hebrew, the one who crossed over.
Micah 7:19 (NASB95)
He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea.
The remnant will flourish
The remnant will flourish
There’s a very powerful phrase that God uses to describe His remnants. It’s the phrase ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’
“Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.
This phrase points us back to the divine command in Genesis, which God gave to Adam and Eve.
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
So what does this mean? This means that the remnant will have the blessing of being normal human beings.
Remember what we said last week about normal human beings? When we have sin, we cannot fully function in the way God created us to function. Sin is dysfunction. Sin is brokenness. Sin is dehumanization and vandalism.
And how are human beings supposed to function? Be fruitful and multiply. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and over every living thing.
So the appearance of this phrase ‘be fruitful and multiply’ in describing the remnants tells us that salvation is God recreating us. Salvation is the work of new creation.
The remnant will become a strong nation
The remnant will become a strong nation
One of the Hebrew words for remnants is sha’ar. This word appears in the Bible about 260 times and means “worthless” and “small in number.”
It refers to the remnant that was weak and small in number, yet did not disappear. They remained because they had received a special kind of grace and love from God
In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.
The remnants are the fools of this world. Everyone’s going to make fun of us for coming to church, giving our time, money, and effort to God. But God promises that we will be a strong nation.
Micah 4:7 (NASB95)
“I will make the lame a remnant And the outcasts a strong nation, And the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion From now on and forever.
What is this strong nation? It’s the kingdom of God. And it belongs to us, the lame and the outcasts of this world.
The remnant is chosen by God
The remnant is chosen by God
And the Bible teaches us that we are the remnant, chosen by grace. The remnant will endure through God’s judgement and the destruction of the wicked.
Isaiah 10:22–23 (NASB95)
For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant within them will return; A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord God of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land.
This tells us that not only is the judgement determined and decreed, but also the remnants who return because of the judgement. Those who are chosen for destruction, receive God’s wrath and justice against sin. Those who are chosen as a remnant receive God’s grace.
In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.
The word ‘time’ here is kairos, meaning God’s time. So the remnants are chosen by God’s grace, according to God’s decreed time.
The remnant is upright
The remnant is upright
The Bible describes the remnants as people who have no lies in their mouth.
Zephaniah 3:13 (NASB95)
“The remnant of Israel will do no wrong And tell no lies, Nor will a deceitful tongue Be found in their mouths; For they will feed and lie down With no one to make them tremble.”
And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.
The remnant relies only on God
The remnant relies only on God
When in times of trouble or distress, the remnant takes comfort only in God.
Zephaniah 3:12 (NASB95)
“But I will leave among you A humble and lowly people, And they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.
God prepares a highway for the remnant
God prepares a highway for the remnant
And God will prepare a highway for the remnant at Christ’s second coming, just like how He parted the Red Sea (Ex. 14:21).
Isaiah 11:16 (NASB95)
And there will be a highway from Assyria For the remnant of His people who will be left, Just as there was for Israel In the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.
We must become the remnant by firmly believing that the highway will open up when God stretches out His hand. We must solely rely on Him and trust in His Word.
Conclusion: The return from captivity manifests the fulfilment of God’s Word
Conclusion: The return from captivity manifests the fulfilment of God’s Word
God spoke through the Prophet Jeremiah that the captivity in Babylon would last seventy years.
“For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
And we can see how this seventy-year prophesy was fulfilled if we look at things from a temple-centred perspective.
There were three deportations to Babylon, in 605 BC, 597 BC, and 586 BC.
At the third deportation, the temple was destroyed.
King Cyrus declared the release of the Israelites in the first year of his rule, in 538 BC.
The Israelites returned to Jerusalem in the second year of Cyrus, in 537 BC.
The Israelites started rebuilding the temple one year later in 536 BC.
The Israelites completed the temple in 516 BC.
So from the first deportation to the start of temple construction, we have 70 years.
From the destruction of the temple to its completion, we have 70 years.
So this shows us that the return from captivity and the reconstruction of the temple signify the fulfilment of God’s Word.
Isn’t that what’s happening right now in this very moment? We are building the temple of God right now.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,
in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,
in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
We are being built on the foundation of the Word of God, written by the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ is our cornerstone. And I pray that we will grow more and more, each worship service, each bible study, each cell group meeting, into a holy temple in the Lord, full of the Holy Spirit.
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat;
but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!”
And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.”